I needed speakers for my office to play music through iPhone as well as PC. My first criteria was they must have full spectrum range (20Hz-20KHz) and that usually also means it need have dedicated bass speaker (i.e. 2.1 system). It just surprised me to no end that almost all 2.1 speakers in market including the expensive ones from well known companies like Logitech did not actually have full range! Infect after thoroughly looking at current line of products from Logitech and Creative I really think that they are ripping off customers by selling highly priced speakers but really weak in technical specs. Many time these companies actually don't even publish this fact visibly and you have to dig deep in to their websites to find technical data. The 2nd criteria was that the speakers should have at least 10W of power. In my view, speakers that you intend to keep 3-4 feet away and that have less than 5W of power don't sound much better than laptop speakers because they will need to run at 50-70% of volume and all the distortion that would occur at higher end. The 3rd criteria was magnetic shielding because speakers would be placed near computer equipment. Although with LCD screens this really doesn't matter but still having shielding is nice. My 4th criteria was price should be less than $100 although I was little flexible here to shell out more money for better speakers.
Now the ONLY speakers in market that not only meets all these 4 criteria but also exceeds them are Eagle Tech ET-AR504LR.
Sound Quality: These speakers are UNBELIEVABLE. Quite a few of my colleagues who came to my office and listen to these speakers were simply blown away with the clarity, quality of bass and crispness. For fun I asked them to guess the price and answers I got were in the range of $150 to as far as $350 :). When listening to lot of my old music on these speakers I can now clearly hear many background instruments that I didn't used to hear before. Bass is very powerful, deep and pleasant like what you would hear from high end home theater system. Also they have dedicated twitters so high pitch sounds have amazing clarity unlike many 2.1 desktop speakers which only focuses on deep bass.
Wattage: These babies sport 75W. To put it in perspective, I can literally hear music down the hallway 4 offices away and through many many walls (each office is about 12-15 ft wide)! The bass gets so powerful that you can see vibration in glass window! Even at 1/3th volume my colleague in next office can hear and feel that bass :). Good thing is that even at high volume they retain their sound quality. Most of the time however I play music at 10% to 18% of full volume.
Shielding: The build quality of these speakers is excellent. I have placed them near laptop, near PC, near LCDs and everything has worked fine as before. All speakers, especially the big bass one, are enclosed in high quality wooden construction.
Size: These speakers are about twice bigger than usual portable speakers you see on desktops. Bass speaker is even bigger and heavier. So these are not something that you can carry around with you all the time in your laptop bag. They are best for fixed desktop work space.
Stereo cable length: I feel it's bit shorter but I haven't felt yet need to buy that 3.5mm stereo extender from Radioshack. The built-in cable length works for my desktop table arrangement.
Other stuff: The front of these speakers have cool blue LEDs and electronic equalizers although I haven't found its use. It also comes with remote control which also I have never used but its nice to have.
Bottom line is that these speakers throws every other speakers in dust even those expensive ones in $100-$200 range. You would want to listen music just because of superb sound quality of these speakers! Eagle Tech ET-AR504LR-BK 2.1 Soundstage Speakers with Subwoofer & Remote
PROS: Very easy to setup & use. Trebles are clear and bass are deep, it sounds on par with the more expensive Z4 that I have hooked up to my wife's PC. Now that I am building another HTPC for myself, I decided to give Eagle a try and couldn't be happier. Couch potatoes like me will really like the wireless remote control (for those LOTR fanatics, you know how loud the movie can get and I needed a quick way to turn down the volume and/or to quickly boost treble/bass during the quieter part of the movie).
CONS: User manual had typos. The RCA audio cables coming from the satellites are too short. I mean come on!! my arms are longer than that... Okay - that was annoying but not a deal breaker since i just picked up a pair of RCA audio cables for less than $2 at local radio shack store. The other thing is that for some reason my speakers would turn ON with the volume all turned up. I later found out that it actually RESETS the digital EQ whenever power is turned OFF. What the [...] ARGGGG~ again, annoying but not a deal breaker since I just left them ON all the time, no biggie.
CONCLUSION: If you were looking to spend around ~$100 on a set of name brand speakers then this one will probably do the job just fine, while saving you some money. Amazon's free shipping makes this a complete steal. Mine arrived in 2 days & no shipping charges. Just wow! - Pc Speakers - Desktop Speakers - Eagle Tech - Great Value'
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